Triple lock and Irish neutrality
Deputy Smith argues that the programme for Government and the history of the triple lock protect Irish neutrality. The Taoiseach says UN vetoes increasingly obstruct peacekeeping, but promises that any new legislation will protect neutrality.
The programme for Government explicitly commits this Government to fully maintaining neutrality and the triple lock. In 2013, Deputy Micheál Martin, the current Tánaiste who wants a Bill brought before the Dáil to get rid of the triple lock, argued that the triple lock is at the core of our neutrality and he refused to accept the argument that it gives a veto to Russia over our peacekeeping activities. The Taoiseach will remember the triple lock was brought in as an amendment to the Nice treaty to get people to vote for that treaty in 2001. Since then, a veto has never been used to block any peacekeeping activities. It is a distortion to say that is the reason. Instead, the Government is doing whatever it takes to try to drag Ireland into a pact of EU militarisation. Now the triple lock is to go, despite the commitment made to it in the programme for Government. I will repeat the question that was asked earlier. Will the Taoiseach stick to the programme for Government and the mandate he has? If he cannot do that, he should give the people a chance to vote in a referendum on whether Ireland wants to keep its neutrality fully intact, triple lock included.
Comment on this
I think anybody who follows UN peacekeeping mandates knows that it has become so difficult to even agree or renew a UN peacekeeping mandate. Incredible Irish peacekeepers have served with the UN. We saw this first-hand when we served on the UN Security Council in 2021 and 2022. The increased use, or threat of the use, of the veto by permanent members of the UN Security Council has directly-----
Comment on this
You took our troops from the Golan Heights. This is fiction.
Comment on this
-----impacted on our role in international peacekeeping. In fact, a new peacekeeping mission has not been authorised by the UN Security Council since-----
Comment on this
There has not been one vetoed
Comment on this
Please do not shout me down. There has not been a new mission authorised since 2014. We will have a debate in this House. To be clear, any legislation we bring forward will absolutely protect Ireland's neutrality. Ireland's neutrality is not at risk, as much as Deputy Smith may wish for her own political gain to suggest it is.
Comment on this
Nonsense. Then leave the triple lock in place.